CBS Sweeps Ratings Week With ‘Brother,’ ‘Dome’ and Football

A mix of programming — led by “Under the Dome,” “Big Brother” and preseason NFL action — carried CBS to primetime victories in key demos last week.

This was CBS’ second 18-49 triumph in the last three weeks during the Time Warner blackout, which has kept about 3.2 million subscribers in New York, Dallas and Los Angeles from watching the Eye’s programs since Aug. 5. While the net has seen some declines in these cities with some shows, the net is strong enough nationally to compensate.

Cable, meanwhile, could claim three of the week’s top five telecasts in adults 18-49, led by the “VMA Awards” and “Duck Dynasty” — far and away the highest-rated programs in primetime.

Overall, according to Nielsen estimates for Aug. 19-25, CBS led in adults 18-49 with a summer-high 1.5 rating/5 share, followed by NBC (1.3/4), Univision (1.2/4), ABC and MTV (1.0/3) and Fox (0.9/3). CBS won by larger margins in its core categories of adults 25-54 (2.0/6) and total viewers (6.1 million).

Sunday’s “MTV Video Music Awards” (5.2 rating/14 share in adults 18-49, 10.07 million viewers overall) was up nicely over its 16-year lows of last year (when the show aired on a Thursday) but still came in below 2010 and 2011.

And at A&E, “Duck Dynasty” followed up its record-setting season premiere of the previous week with more big numbers (4.5/13 in 18-49, 10.07 million viewers overall). No other series for the week on any network, did better than a 8 share in the 18-49 demo.

For CBS, the week was led by “Big Brother” (2.5/7 in 18-49, 7.17m), which matched or set season highs in all key categories, and “Under the Dome” (2.4/7 in 18-49, 10.64m), which was flat week to week in 18-49 and up in other categories as it seems to have settled in at a good number.

The Eye also saw week-to-week gains for “Unforgettable” on Sunday (1.1/3 in 18-49, 6.80m) and spiked relative to previous weeks with NFL preseason games on Friday (2.3/9 in 18-49, 7.68m for Seattle-Green Bay) and Saturday (1.2/5 in 18-49, 4.42m).

NBC was led by preseason football on Sunday (2.5/7 in 18-49, 8.18 million viewers overall for Minnesota-San Francisco) and by “America’s Got Talent” (2.2/7 in 18-49, 8.52m); the latter, though dragging some this summer, was Tuesday’s No. 1 show on the Big Four by a wide margin.

Of note at ABC was the first 18-49 victory to date for ABC’s “Extreme Weight Loss” (1.3/4 in 18-49, 3.73 million viewers overall) over Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 3.80m).

And Saturday’s NASCAR Series race (1.6/6 in 18-49, 6.32 million viewers overall) surprisingly topped CBS’ preseason football by a comfy margin.

Fox’s highlight of the week was Wednesday’s “MasterChef” (2.4/7 in 18-49, 5.63 million viewers overall), which beat NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” (2.1/6 in 18-49, 6.31 million viewers overall) by a full three-tenths in 18-49 after prevailing for the first time in their head-to-head matchup the previous week.

CW’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway” continues to perform at a good summer level for the net (0.8/3 in 18-49, 2.22m), and lead-out reality show “Capture” edged up (0.4/1 in 18-49, 0.90m). Not looking so hot are Friday’s “Perfect Score” (0.2/1 in 18-49, 0.54m) and “America’s Next Top Model” (0.2/1 in 18-49, 0.85m).

Univision’s top programs in 18-49 were Wednesday’s “Porque el Amor Manda” (1.7/6) and Thursday’s “La Tempestad” (1.7/5), which would have cracked the overall top 20 for the week.

In addition to the “MTV Video Music Awards” and “Duck Dynasty,” cable was also represented among the week’s overall top shows in 18-49 by AMC’s “Breaking Bad” (2.5/7 in 18-49, 4.85 million viewers overall) and A&E’s “Modern Dads” (1.9/6 in 18-49, 3.97m); the latter dropped off a lot from its “Duck Dynasty” lead-in but still put up good numbers.

At the premium cable networks, Showtime’s “Dexter” (1.1/3 in 18-49, 2.29 million viewers overall) bounced back from its recent lows while “Ray Donovan” was down a bit (0.5/1 in 18-49, 1.33m) but that still put it ahead of AMC’s competing “Low WInter Sun” (0.4/1 in 18-49, 1.23m), even though the latter is available in more than three times as many homes.